Ep. 12 “Remember”

(photo courtesy of amctv.com)

The Walking Dead “Remember” Recap and Review

Sullywood Rating: 8.5/10

Recap:

“Remember” starts right where we left off last week. The group is entering Alexandria. Daryl brought a gift, a dead possum, oh nice, wow does this group need civilization again. The group enters slowly and as the doors open, we see an armed man, Nicholas. He stares at Daryl, who with his possum and looking dirty, was a great way of showing how far away from civilization they’ve gone from. Nicholas says he needs everyone’s weapons. Rick says he’s not sure they want to stay. Aaron mentions they should talk with Deanna (who knows everything about this place). Sasha shoots a walker coming their way, Rick says “It’s a good thing we’re here”.

Rick is in a nice looking office, a woman says hello, says she’s Deanna Monroe and she’d like to film their talk. Rick asks why? Deanna says they are about transparency. Deanna says she was a congressperson in Ohio. She asks Rick what he did, and he says it doesn’t matter. Rick asks what Alexandria is. Deanna explains that it was actually a planned community, brochures even. Deanna mentions that her husband, an architect, helped build the walls, and that it mattered who he was before the walkers. She mentions they need people who have lived outside the gates. Rick says they should keep the gates closed because you can’t trust anybody. Deanna mentions that northern Virginia was evacuated a long time ago, and they’ve lost people. Deanna mentions she’s “done things”, she exiled 3 men who didn’t work out. She wants a safe place for people to live. Deanna explains that she’s really good at reading people, would’ve been a poker player if she didn’t get reelected (she’s not kidding, we’d better get some damn good poker puns this season). She wants Rick and the group to help them survive. Rick mentions he was sheriff.

The group gives up their guns. Rick and Carl go with Aaron to the residential portion of Alexandria, they apparently get 2 houses. Aaron with more jokes, this time about curb appeal of the homes. Aaron’s pretty funny.

Yes Aaron, like a clown, now stop with the jokes, people are trying to be re-acclimated to society dammit! Rick and Carl enter one of the homes and begin exploring. Can I say that I am liking this story line already, very different, and hoping we can trust these people. Running water…running water?…running water! Rick, thank the lord for showering and….away goes the beard? By the beard of Rick, it’s gone! Woah Rick, you look weird. A knock at the door, a woman has some supplies and gives it to Rick, says her name is Jessie, and she’s a stylist. The locks of hair are gone! Oh man Rick, you’re getting the whole damn SportClips treatment, hot towel please?

Deanna is now interviewing Daryl, who could not look more out of place. She asks him if he even wants to be here, he says that Carl and Judith deserve this. Carl and Carol check out the other home. They all seem a little apprehensive; Rick mentions that they will all stay in one of the homes tonight. Carl heads upstairs, knife out, swings open a door, and…nothing. This was another instance where the show was definitely trying to point out how awkward the group looks in a real societal setting, great job.

Back at one of the houses, we see the group together, getting ready for bed. Michonne tells Rick that it’s smart to play it safe, but she has a good feeling about this place. Knock on the door, its Deanna; she can’t help but joke about beardless Rick. She’s just stopping in to see how they’re doing. Everybody gets a job Deanna says. I like Deanna so far, seems trustworthy and smart, seems like an appropriate leader for this place. Sleepy time now, Rick is on edge. He gets up in the middle of the knife…I mean night and grabs a knife. (See Aaron, everyone can make jokes)

It’s Michonne’s turn for an interview. She says the group is ready for this. Like Dora, the group is gonna explora. (A thank you) Rick is walking around the community when he all of a sudden looks panicked as always, and begins running around the town, looking for Carl and Judith. He runs into Jessie and they find Carl and Judith with an elderly couple. Jessie mentions that one of the kids that she works with really wants to meet Carl. We see Carl and “Ron” going to meet the rest of the youts.

Ron mentions that all the kids go to school. We meet Mikey and Enid. Anybody else thinking that Enid is a new love interest for Carl? Ron asks Carl if he wants to play video games, or they could play pool at Mikey’s house, although his Dad is strict, but Mikey’s dad is at work, and what Mikey’s Dad don’t know, don’t hurt him. Love this episode so far, it’s very creepy in a strange way. The things that shouldn’t be creepy based off of the world we live in now, somehow are to the group. Btw Carl, you need a damn hair cut yourself. Carl looks a little spooked by it all, but finally wants to play video games. How awesome would it have been if he said let’s play Resident Evil?

Carl’s turn, he mentions Alexandria is exactly what his Mom wanted for them. Rick enters Carl’s room and Carl asks what Rick thinks of this place. Rick says he thinks it’s nice, Carl agrees and says he likes it here, but also mentions that they are weak, and that he doesn’t want all of them to get weak too. Night time again, Rick can’t sleep. Michonne wakes up and goes over to him. She says she wants a job, but hasn’t been given one yet. They both are ready to commit to Alexandria, but Rick asks why they are both awake. Rick says he’s going to take a walk. Now with The Walking Dead, this is the part where Rick is supposed to walk in on Deanna basically turning into Darth Vader, but nope. Rick encounters Jessie’s husband. He tells Rick “Welcome to Alexandria”, in an extremely creepy and non-welcoming voice. Well we can be sure that the connection between Rick and Jessie earlier will certainly lead to a duel for Jessie’s heart later on.

Carol’s turn. She talks about her past life, what she did for Ed, says she misses him, say what? Carol divulges that she’s become a den mother of sort for the group. Deanna asks where she thinks she’ll fit in. Carols wants to be involved in the community, do they have a Junior League? (Yup right next to the YMCA Carol) Says she’s a people person. Carol walks out in some very professional attire and mentions to Daryl that she’s helping to cook for the elderly. (Daryl, you need a shower like Carl needs a haircut) We cut to Glenn, who is up now. He says “We need to make this work”. Deanna asks why, “Cause…we were almost out there too long.”

Rick heads outside the gates. Carl notices Enid outside his window heading for the fence line, looking suspicious. She starts scaling the walls and makes it over the wall. We see two gents heading towards Glenn, Tara, and Noah. The one man states all of their names and introduces himself as Aiden. Glenn says “You’re Deanna’s son?” he confirms. Aiden mentions he was doing ROTC before it all happened. They are going for a dry run, looking for supplies. Glenn asks about weapons for their run, Aiden mentions that they “Pulled out some sweet-ass biscuits for today”. Now I’m not the biggest gun person and I am only getting older so I may not know what he kids are saying these days, but biscuits?

We see Enid out in the woods, Carl following closely behind her. (Oh good you’ve got your Dad’s cowboy police hat on, that should help you fit in with the cool kids real quickly.) He loses her. We pan back over to Rick who is startled by a walker. He doesn’t kill it? He walks over to the house where he stored the gun from the previous episode, opens up the blender he hid it in and….it’s gone. Oh shit. The walkers are getting closer, Carl approaches, and they both go off on the walkers.

The group that is going on the run is now seen, Aiden explains that they increase their radius mile by mile around the town, and that 53 miles out is their longest so far. Aiden mentions that they lost 4 people last month, they didn’t follow the system. Aiden says he knows he’s a hard ass and a douche bag, great qualities there Aiden. Nicholas, the man guarding the gate from earlier, states that they strung up a walker to remind them what they’re up against, it’s gone. Nicholas whistles for it, and Glenn, Tara, and Noah look confused. It appears and Aiden and Nicholas begin to toy with it. It ends up almost killing Tara before Glenn kills him. Everyone is not happy. And it looks like we’ve found the people in the group that the audience won’t like, take a bow Aiden and Nicholas.

Aiden and Glenn get into it back at the community and a fight almost breaks out before Deanna comes and breaks it up. Aiden tries to punch Glenn but he ducks and Glenn gives him a nice hit to the gut. Nicholas tries to interfere but Daryl takes care of him, awesome. Deanna mentions that Rick’s group is a part of Alexandria now. Deanna finally informs Rick of his job, she wants him to be constable to the town. She explains “That’s what you were, and that’s what you are” and then also gives that job to Michonne, they both accept. Daryl doesn’t look happy for some reason. Deanna thanks Glenn for knocking her son on his ass. Enid’s back, Carl states that she doesn’t like him, does she? No response from Enid. (Enid seems really fun….) We see a replay of Rick’s interview from earlier, then it continues in the back ground and we see Rick come downstairs in a police uniform, the group smiles and he talks with Daryl. Rick thinks they can start sleeping in their own homes and Carol says the same thing Carl said earlier, “this place will make us weak”, Rick doesn’t think so. He says they’ll make it work, and if Alexandria can’t make it work for them basically, they’ll just take this place. Fade to black.

Review:

“Remember” was easily the best episode of the 2nd half of the season so far and a landmark episode for the series. It’s the first time we truly see the group back in real civilization…showers, shaves, and haircuts oh my! This episode found a way to bring an ease and a sense of suspense, which is hard to do. We as an audience want our Walking Dead family to make it so badly that Alexandria definitely toys with our emotions, just like it toys with the emotions of the group. I really like the Deanna character so far, seems like the total opposite of the Governor. Not a lot of Abe and company in this episode, I wonder if maybe the writers got some flak from viewers regarding the split episodes of the first half of the season where they concentrated on different groups instead of the whole. The character of Michonne is quite fascinating if you think about it. She went from trusting nobody, to being one of the most, if not currently, the most trusting person in the group. All seemed fine and dandy for about ¾ of this episode until we met Aiden and got to know Nicholas a bit better. Will Aiden be our villain of the 2nd half of the season? Also, it occurred to me last week that we haven’t seen anything further on Morgan, and there was nothing at the end of this episode either. As always this has been your self-proclaimed expert.